The present work has the aim of verifying the quality of natural and washed coffee during its drying with air heated at 40º and 60ºC. The work was accomplished in the Engineering Department and in the Coffee Post-harvest Technology Pole at the Federal University of Lavras. The harvest of Topázio cultivar cultivar was selective. A part of the coffee was pulped and the other part processed in the dry method. A portion of each kind of coffee was led to drying on ground and the other portion for drying at temperatures of 40ºC and 60ºC. For quality evaluation, electric tests and potassium leaching, total titrable acidity; fatty acidity test, total sugars and reducing sugars were conducted. The results obtained in the present work allow to conclude that: drying time is affected by the different sorts of drying and processings; electric conductivity, potassium leaching, total titrable acidity and fatty acidity increase with increasing drying temperature independently of the kind of processing; reducing sugars and total sugars decrease with rise of drying temperature independently of the sort of processing; the drying at the temperature of 60ºC affected negatively coffee quality.
Coffee; processing; drying; quality
